A New Found Love
by bmbutlerbabe
Summary: A story i wrote like 2-3 years ago. Hermione is training to become a healer. Her mentor is someone rather unexpected.
1. Chapter 1

**A new found Love!**

Chapter One: Mentor

_Hermione_

It was a Thursday morning and I was starting my healer training. Little did I know who would be training me, but I was very excited to be a part of helping my fellow witches and wizards with their health. I'd only finished Hogwarts 3 years ago, but I couldn't wait to be learning again. I was determined to be the best at this and I wouldn't let anything get in my way. Not even my mentor.

I woke up at 4am, I was supposed to meet my new mentor at 's at 5.30am. I went and had a long hot shower and then proceeded to tame my now dark brown, nearly black hair. I had decided to dye it a week after the final war for my seventh year. It was still out of control, but not as wild as it was before. So I did all the usual spells and ended up with my usual straight hair, so I pulled it back into a tight bun with one stray hair which I curled slightly and left to dangle down the side of my tanned face.

I then continued on to do my make-up. Now, I never used to wear make-up, but after the war, I thought I would. That war changed me and so I changed a lot about myself, that my friends accepted without words. I thought that as it was my first day I would only wear a light amount of make-up, so I used skin type colours and only put a small amount of mascara on.

Then I went to my new walk-in wardrobe and picked out a pair of grey skinny jeans and a striped grey jumper that hugged my figure perfectly. It was now 5.15am, so I quickly made myself a piece of toast and shoved it down my throat before downing a glass of pumpkin juice and brushing my teeth. I then grabbed my coat and apparated to 's.

_Narcissa_

It was a normal morning for me. I got up at 4am and got myself ready for my busy day at work in 's. By 5am I was ready and arrived at work to take over the night matron for the day. As I got into my office to get changed into my matron's jacket and put my identification badge, I noticed a letter on my desk. It was from the director of the hospital. It read:

_Dear Narcissa Malfoy,_

_I expect you have been informed that all the trainee healers started last week and have all been assigned a trained healer as a mentor. I received an application letter last week after all the position's for this year had been filled, but as any good director, I read the application and was amazed by this applicant's determination to join our programme. Now, because all the healer's are taken as mentor's, I am assigning this trainee to you, as you are the only healer left. This trainee is not your average woman, which is why I have personally allowed this woman to join our programme. Never did I ever expect her to apply for this job, but I am extremely delighted for this. The only thing is, that I have accepted her proposal of doing this 4 year course in just 2 years, which means that I have told her that in order for her to complete this, she would need training for at least 14hours a day, so I was wondering if it would be possible for her to stay at your home for the duration of this course?_

_Please respond with your answer and I shall let the proposed student know of this arrangement._

_If you do not wish to comply with the living arrangements, we shall work something out with the student. Perhaps I could get a healer from another hospital to mentor her at the times when you wouldn't be able to._

_Many Thanks_

_Russell Brown_

_Director of Health_

_'s Hospital_

I read this letter over twice and couldn't believe my eyes. I was over the moon. I had always wanted to mentor a trainee healer for years, but was never allowed as I was the matron. This was my chance and I didn't care if they lived with me for the next two years! I would get to mentor this student and make them the best healer in this hospital since I was a student here. I wrote back a reply:

_Dear Russell,_

_Of course I will accept. I have the spare room in my manor being prepared as we speak. I assume this student will be arriving in the hospital today, so I will happily await her arrival._

_Just one question, who is this student that I will be a mentor for?_

_Narcissa_

As I sent my reply, I happily awaited the news about my new student, sitting at my desk sorting out some outstanding paperwork.

_Hermione_

As I arrived at the front desk in 's an owl dropped a letter on the front desk which was addressed to me. I picked the letter up and sat down in the waiting room and opened my letter. It read:

_Dear Miss Hermione Granger,_

_I am delighted in telling you that your new mentor is waiting for you in the matron's office and does not have a problem with you living with her for the next two weeks. I am also obliged to remind you that if anything goes wrong or you find you are struggling with your mentor or the amount of work that will need to be done, you cannot change mentor's or do the full course as there are no other places left. Unless there is an emergency I presume this is not a problem with you and I hope you and your new mentor will become good friends as you make your way up in the healer profession._

_I am very pleased you have chosen this as your new job._

_Best Wishes_

_Russell Brown_

_Director of Health_

_'s Hospital_

I was ecstatic and couldn't believe that everything I wanted and had asked for in my application form had begun to happen. Now all I needed to do was head up to the Matron's office on the 3rd floor to meet my mentor.

_Narcissa_

I hadn't received a reply to my letter to the director when there was a knock at my office door.

"Come in," I called, hoping that it wasn't my new student. How wrong I was.

As the door opened, Hermione Granger was stood staring at me, as I was to her. She walked into the room and closed the door behind her.

"Sit down. I take it you are my new student that I am to mentor?" She sat down and was about to say something, but I spoke before she got the chance. "Look, before you say anything, we can't do much about this situation and to tell you the truth, I am really excited. I know you're probably thinking i'm mad and I shouldn't be saying things like that, but it is true. I am not the horrible woman you once knew to be Draco Malfoy's mother. I was only like that as I was put under the imperious curse by my ex husband, Lucius. I apologise for anything that he made me or my son, yes Draco was under it too, anything we did or said that may have hurt you in some way. We apologise greatly. In fact we are very proud that Harry Potter did what he did to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and we are grateful that you and your other friends helped. I just wish I could have helped too, but unfortunately I couldn't. So, I am sorry and I hope that you can find it in your heart to forgive me. I hope that we could one day get along quite well."

She just stared at me and obviously needed a chance for that to sink in. Suddenly she smiled at me.

"Look, I am not saying we are going to be friends or anything like that, but I do forgive you and if Draco decides to apologise to my face, I will probably accept it as well. I am actually very pleased you have been chosen to be my mentor, because I know how good a healer you are and I would be honoured to be your student for the next two years. I suppose you have sorted somewhere for me to stay, as I got a letter saying you wanted me to live with you while I was in training?" She questioned. I nodded my head in agreement and she stood up and we shook hands.

I thought this was the beginning of a beautiful friendship, even though she didn't know it yet.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two: Malfoy Manor

**A/N: I would like to say that it was only the 1st chapter that was in 1st person, but all the others will be in 3rd person. Unless I change my mind. Thanks for reading. Please R&R**

Malfoy Manor was the size of a huge castle in Hermione's eyes and she couldn't believe that she would be staying here for the next two years. Unfortunately for her, Draco, Narcissa's only son still lived at the manor.

"You will be staying in the West Wing of the house. My quarters are the East Wing and Draco's in the North Wing. I have told him that you will be living here from now on, so he shouldn't bother you unnecessarily. In your quarters, you will find a private library and study, your bedroom, a walk-in wardrobe, a private bathroom, living room and your own kitchen combined with a dining room if you do not wish to eat with us. As a personal gift to you and a trainee congrats present, I have stocked your walk-in wardrobe with lots of new clothes for you and I got the house elf to move your clothes and personal items from your flat to here for you," Narcissa explained while walking Hermione to her new home. She left her at the entrance to her new living room.

Instinctively, Hermione decided to look around her new "home" as she would now be calling it for the next two years. She put her bag and coat down in the living room, which to her surprise was a peachy colour and had cream coloured carpets and couches. There was an oak coffee table and amazingly there was a muggle television in the corner of the room. There were three doors that presumably led to the other rooms in this small house within a house. She decided to take the first door closest to her, which led to her immaculately clean kitchen and dining room combine. There was a huge white American style freezer/fridge, which was stocked up with all the different sorts of food you could think of. There were a few cupboards and drawers stocked with cutlery, sponges, cloths, tea towels, plates, cups, glasses, bowels and cleaning supply's and equipment. In the corner of the kitchen was a medium sized pine wood table with four chairs surrounding.

Once Hermione had finished marvelling at her new kitchen, her dream kitchen, she went back into the living room and entered the next doors, which led to her enormous library with a door at the far end, which you could just about see. The door led to her neat and tidy study, with two desks inside. One desk had a pot with pens, pencils and other stationery in and a pile of paper to write on and a new quill and ink next to it. On the other desk was a muggle computer and printer. There were two swivel chairs for the desks.

She then moved on to the last door in the living room, which obviously led to her bedroom.

Inside was a huge bedroom with a dressing table in the corner, a flat screen television was hung on the wall opposite a Queen sized bed that had blood red coloured sheets with gold spots all over. There were two extra doors in here, one led to Hermione's private bathroom and the other to her new walk-in wardrobe. The bathroom had a bath the size of the one in the prefect's bathroom at Hogwarts and a shower that could fit the whole Gryffindor quidditch team inside together.

She then went to check out her new wardrobe and look at all the clothes Narcissa had bought her. It was incredible. On one side was tons upon tons of posh frocks and clothes, on the other were every day outfits and at the back, which looked about a mile away were millions of pairs of shoes. At the back in a tiny section of the wardrobe were Hermione's clothes from her flat. It looked pathetic compared to the other clothes inside this magnificent room.

She went back to her kitchen to get herself a drink and sat down on one of her couches. She was about to turn on her television when there were three distinctive knocks at her door.

She got up an had a shock when non other than Draco Malfoy was standing in her new doorway.

"What do you want, Malfoy?" She snapped, clearly forgetting that he wasn't the same man he was when they were at school.

"Well, if you are going to be like that, then I won't talk to you again. Bye," he replied in a very polite tone of voice. He went to turn around when a small warm hand gripped his shoulder and turned him back around.

"I'm sorry. It's just hard to forget all that stuff you did and said to me at school. I suppose I should apologise. Oh, and I can't believe I am saying this, but do you think we could possibly just be civil towards each other while i'm living here please?" Hermione asked as she pulled Draco back towards her. He stared at her hand on his shoulder until she moved it away and as he looked up he saw her smile at him waiting for his reply.

"Of course we can. I came here to apologise to you, for everything and anything I ever did or said to you that hurt in some way. It wasn't really me, it was my father and I didn't know how to stop myself from doing those things. I was also wondering if you would care to join us for dinner in about 20 minutes. I'll come by and show you the way if you'll come," he replied looking hopeful.

Hermione took a minute to contemplate what he had just said and smiled again. This would give her a chance to try on some of those beautiful gowns, that is, if they were going to dress up for dinner.

"OK. I accept your apology and I will join you and your mother for dinner. But, be aware that if you do anything at all like what you did to me in school. That apology will be forgotten and I will reject it." She was about to shut the door on him, when he slid inside. "What are you doing? I thought you were going back to your room or somewhere before you came to get me?"

"Well, for dinner we sort of dress up and I thought that seeing as you don't really know what we wear that maybe I could help. I brought my own clothes with me, so I can change here if you don't mind, then when you are ready I can escort you to dinner," he answered setting himself down on one of her comfy couches.

"Er... well I suppose you could help me, but I need to take a shower first. Is there any way that you could get dinner postponed about half an hour? Or would that be a nuisance?" Hermione asked.

"No. I'll just send mother a letter and tell her to let the house elves know. Go and take your shower, i'll pick out some of your outfits if you show me your wardrobe and you can try them on and i'll tell you which one is the most suitable."

Hermione just nodded and headed off to her bathroom and Draco followed after sending a letter to his mother and went to the walk-in wardrobe. After about ten minutes he had found a perfect dress for tonight's dinner and didn't bother looking for any others. As he got back to Hermione's room, he noticed that the shower had stopped, so he assumed she had finished and was wrapped up in a towel, probably drying her hair. So, he knocked his usual distinctive three knocks to let her know it was him and walked into the bathroom. Unfortunately, Hermione hadn't found a towel yet and was stark naked in the middle of the bathroom. She screamed when she saw Draco standing in the door way with a gown in his arms staring at her. He thought she looked beautiful. She had droplets of water running down her body, her plump C-cup breasts were hard from the cold and she had perfect curves all over with her perfectly proportional thin legs. Before he could look at anything else he had snapped out of his trance and chucked her a towel.

"Oh my gosh! I am so sorry. I assumed you had a towel and was drying your hair. I had no idea, please forgive my foolishness and I promise you it will never happen again. I was only coming to tell you I had found the perfect dress, so you won't need to try more than one on. I shall leave it on your bed for you and then I will wait in your living room until you are ready, but I understand if you decide you don't want to dine with us tonight." He was about to leave her on her own once again, but she spoke before he could leave, so he turned around to face her.

"Look, I can understand that what just happened was an accident and I forgive you, but just wait until I answer next time please? I will join you still, but wait in my bedroom, because I have no idea what shoes to wear, so you can help me." She smiled and he left her to dry and get some underwear on.

As Draco left, he couldn't stop thinking about how beautiful she looked just then.

Once she had finished in her bathroom, she entered her bedroom to find an already changed Draco sitting on her bed with a pair of blue sparkly shoes in his hand with the dress he had earlier hanging on his arm. He handed her the blue gown that had glitter covering the bottom half of the dress. The shoes were practically made to match the dress, so Hermione shoved them on quickly and used her wand to apply make-up to match her outfit, which hugged her figure in all the right ways.

They then left to have a quiet dinner, with Narcissa explaining what Hermione and herself would be starting off with tomorrow, when her healer training officially began.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Healing Wounds

Hermione woke with a start as she realised she was no longer living in her beautiful apartment round the corner from Ginny and Harry's house. So, reluctantly she got out of her warm bed which she wanted to lie in all day and went to have a shower. Once out of the shower and drying her hair she suddenly realised she didn't know what she was supposed to wear for her training and as if she had read her mind Narcissa had left a healers cloak on her bed for her with the usual three stripes down one side, which indicates a trainee healer.

As soon as she was dressed and had a slice of toast made in her very own kitchen, she thought she would walk down the hall and see if Narcissa was about and if she wasn't she would then apparate to 's and begin her training there. So, as she was walking down the long corridor's of the Manor she happened to see a certain white blonde haired young man flying on a broomstick in his own private Quidditch court. _Wow! I've never really payed attention to how good he is at flying and he does look good in that uniform. _Hermione thought to herself and then mentally slapped herself for thinking of Mal-Draco as good looking.

She couldn't find Narcissa anywhere in the Mansion and by the time she had finished she was already 10 minutes late. She quickly apparated to Narcissa's office and found her sitting at her desk with lots of forms and a very nervous looking young man that had quite a few cuts and bruises all over him. He had dark brown short hair, was very skinny and had bright blue eyes. Narcissa smiled when Hermione finally arrived and gave her a friendly hug to welcome her.

"Right, before we start you must sign these 6 forms on top of this pile and the rest of this is what you will need to read and memorise as you will be given your "1st" year test on these topics in 3 months time. I'm sure you will get the time to do that and hopefully we can then settle down a bit after that exam and you will be given a week's vacation for yourself to do whatever you wish and then it will be your time to work on one of the wards and help me look after patients while noting down anything that you may find useful for your "2nd" year exam which will take place at the end of this year. So, please read and sign those forms and then you will have 10 minutes to just read the 1st couple of pages about the basic healing charm for small wounds and bruises such as this young man has." She finished her little speech with a small smile and then shoved the papers towards Hermione, who flicked through them and then signed each one in the appropriate places. She couldn't actually believe she was doing this. It was her dream come true and thankfully for her tomorrow was Sunday so she would have the day off and she could go visit her friends for the day and tell them everything.

As soon as she had signed the last paper, they disappeared, she presumed to the person in charge of all the paperwork for the trainee's. She then proceeded to start reading the first few pages, but her curiosity got the better of her and she ended up reading nearly half of the 4000 paged booklet.

Narcissa noticed that she had read a bit further than she needed, so decided to let her practice the 1st spell on her volunteer patient.

"Well, I see you have read the first few pages on the basic healing spell," she laughed. "I don't suppose I will even need to give you the talk all the normal trainee's usually get before attempting this spell, so i'll skip right ahead and show you an example of the spell."

And with that she pulled out her wand and uttered "_curar_" and one of the bruises on the man disappeared.

Next it was Hermione's turn and she hesitantly pulled her wand out, pointed it at the gash across the man's chest and said "_curar_" and the cut didn't disappear, it just sort of faded and scabbed over. She looked at Narcissa confused. She had done everything Narcissa had and it didn't work. "I don't understand. I did exactly what I saw you do and it didn't heal it just faded and scabbed over. Why didn't it work?"

"That was a very good try, I think the best i've ever seen a trainee do that spell, but you need to be imagining the person's bruise/cut being healed and then it should work perfectly. Try again, but imagine the cut healed."

Hermione took in all that Narcissa had said and turned her attention back to the man and his cuts and bruises. She pointed again at the cut she just tried to heal, imagined it gone and said "curar" confidently this time. The cut then disappeared and Hermione smiled, very pleased with herself. _They don't call me the smartest witch of my age for nothing! _

For the rest of the day Hermione got to heal the small minor wounds on patients that came in not sure if they had infected their cuts or were unconscious from falling over and bumping their heads. She had such a good time, that she was disappointed when she had to leave the hospital and go back to the Manor. Once she got to the safety of her living room, she pulled out her huge 4000 page booklet and finished reading the rest of it. By the time she had finished it was 9.30pm, so since she had missed dinner she decided to grab a quick pot noodle, wizard style, and then went straight to bed unable to wait until the next day to see her friends and tell them all about her eventful couple of days.

Saturday came very quickly and she was very happy about it, because she was going to Harry and Ginny's house and Ron and his new wife Lydia were going to be joining them for lunch.

She got up and showered and then walked into her wardrobe and picked out a pair of grey skinny jeans and a long grey top with butterflies down one side of it. Her outfit actually hugged her figure in a very flattering way. She then grabbed a long black coat that she hadn't seen in there before and quickly put it on and apparated to the Potter's house.

Ginny was sitting on the sofa eating a huge piece of cake, as Harry was rubbing her now quite large bump of a stomach feeling their unborn baby kicking his hand.

"You know it's going to be a boy don't you. Kicking all the time, he's got loads of energy, so he'll be good at Quidditch without a doubt. So anyway, what time is Hermione supposed to arrive, because I've got to go to the ministry at 5 for training," Harry said as Ginny got up and took her plate into the kitchen and washed it up.

"She's supposed to be arriving in around 10 minutes, so i'm going to go and change quickly. Oh, before I forget. This baby, may or may not be a girl, so stop making decisions and she or he might not even enjoy Quidditch! Don't even think of saying anything else about it otherwise you will get a very angry 6month pregnant woman jumping on you."

And with that, Ginny went up to hers and Harry's room and changed into something a bit more smart and comfortable.

As she got back down stairs, she found Harry hugging Hermione and both smiling at seeing each other. She got into the living room and was bombarded with a tight hug from her best friend and had to play the squashing baby line to get her off. They all sat down and talked about the pregnancy and Harry's auror training when Ron and Lydia suddenly appeared in their fireplace.

"Ron! Oh it's so good to see you. I haven't seen you in 3 months, but it seems like 3 years," Hermione laughed. Then she realised what she said and regretted it, as it sounded really strange. Although, Ron, completely unaware of this just gave her a big hug and a kiss on the cheek. Then Lydia did the same and they began talking about their wedding, that led onto Harry and Ginny's wedding and then they spoke about their work and future plans.

Harry and Lydia both had to disappear early at this point, so it was only Ginny, Hermione and Ron that were having lunch together.

When they had started eating the conversation then landed upon Hermione. They asked her about what she was doing and if she had found herself a boyfriend yet.

"No, I am still single, but I am concentrating on my training at the moment," she replied trying not to let slip anything about Draco.

"Training? I didn't know you were training? What for? You told me after the war that you didn't want to do training, because you were happy with your automatic job in the Department of Muggle Services." Ron stated looking at her with a confused look on his face.

Hermione just smiled and said, "Well, after two years there I decided I was going to do what i've always wanted. Become a healer. I was lucky though, because I only just got accepted and have been allowed to do the training in just 2 years instead of 4. In order for me to do this though I have to stay at my mentor's house, so I don't live in my apartment any more. I get Sunday's off though, that's why I had to arrange this meeting for today. I've already learnt how to heal cuts and bruises and bumps and small wounds like that. But it's amazing."

Ginny was smiling at her friend's news and Ron was just shocked that she had quit her old job.

"Oh, 'Mione that's great! Wait! You've moved out of your flat into someone else's house? Who is your mentor anyway?" Ginny questioned her.

This was the one question she didn't want to have to ask right away, but she thought it's better to tell them now than later.

"My mentor is Narcissa Malfoy."

They both gasped when they heard the name of their enemies mother come out of Hermione's mouth.

"Narcissa _Malfoy!_ Hermione isn't there another person you could have as your mentor? Wait, is Malfoy still living there?" Ron asked completely losing it. His face was turning red with as Hermione nodded her head to his final question.

She felt really bad now, as she looked at her friends faces and wanted to tell them she was lying about living with Mal-Draco.

"Look, I can't help it. It's only for two years and Narcissa and Draco both apologised for everything and I gave them both veritaserum without them knowing and they still said the same things. They're both really nice to me and I want you to know that what Draco did to us make a huge wound in myself and it's starting to heal, so I would like it if you could just put your differences behind you and forgive him like I have," and with that she got up and apparated back to her living room in the Manor to find Draco sitting on her couch.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Draco Malfoy

Draco had been waiting for Hermione to get back from wherever she went earlier that day for 2 hours now. He was just about to get up and leave, when the woman he had been waiting for suddenly appeared in the room startled by his appearance.

Draco was still in his Quidditch gear and looked as though he was about to leave. She didn't know what to do, so she sat down and motioned for him to start talking.

"I was wondering when you would be back. Did you have a good day?" Draco asked her smiling at her confused expression.

"Oh. Well, I went to visit my friends today. So, what was it that you wanted to talk to me about?" Hermione replied smiling back.

"I was wondering if you would like to join me for dinner? I thought we could get to know each other better. If you don't want to, I understand and I won't ask again, but please consider it?" and with that he turned to leave, but Hermione held him back.

"I'd love to join you for dinner. Just give me an hour and i'll meet you in here, okay?" She let him leave after a curt nod and she then retired to her bedroom and took a long hot shower.

When she got out, she proceeded to use a spell to straighten it and put on some light pink make-up.

To match her make-up and hair, Hermione picked out another item of clothing, which she hadn't seen in her wardrobe since that morning. It was a light pink curve hugging dress, it was one of those smart dresses that is similar to a party dress, but not as trashy looking. She quickly put the dress on and rushed to the end of the wardrobe to find a pair of shoes. When she reached the end, she saw the perfect matching pink heeled shoes and shoved them on. When she got back to the entrance of the wardrobe, she found the coat she had on earlier hanging on the back of the door. She found this strange, as she thought she left it on the back of her couch earlier. She grabbed it anyway and made her way into her living room and found Draco sitting casually across her couch, holding a single red rose in his hand.

"Wow, you look wonderful! Do you like the outfit? I saw it yesterday and transported it into your wardrobe, in case you thought i'd been in there. The coat is from me as well. I just transported it in there as well, I thought you'd want it as we are going to a restaurant outside and it's freezing out there."

Hermione was so shocked that she couldn't move for a minute. Once she regained movement, she took the rose that Draco had just offered her and put it in a small vase she conjured up. Then she looked back at Draco and said, "I love the rose and the outfit is wonderful. Thank you so much, but I am absolutely starving, so could we leave now please?" She smiled at him as he took her arm and apparated them both to a lovely little restaurant in what seemed to be a deserted road around the corner from a very busy street. When they got there they were greeted by an elderly lady who showed them to a table near the back of the restaurant and magically made the menu's appear.

_That's why this restaurant is hidden away from the main street _Hermione thought. As soon as she told the waitress what she wanted to eat, the food and her wine magically appeared on the table in front of them.

"Oh, I am so glad that we are in a magic restaurant. I would have died of hunger if we had to wait in a muggle restaurant, they always take forever to cook the food you order. This is a magnificent meal by the way," Hermione was saying when they started their meals.

"I've never been to a muggle restaurant. I don't know what they are like. Father never allowed us to go to one. Maybe you could take me sometime?" Draco looked at Hermione hopefully and she nodded in agreement.

"So, what do you do now? I mean, do you have a job or are you in training for something? I don't really know that much about what everyone from school has been doing, except Harry and all the Weasley's and some of the Gryffindor's and a couple of others."

"I'm in training for a seeker in the Chudley Cannon's Quidditch team, I wasn't really expecting to do this, but i'm good at it, so I thought why not?" Draco replied looking down at his food ashamed of what he was doing with his life.

"Why do you look so ashamed, Draco? That's a good job and i'm sure if Harry new, he would be deathly jealous," Hermione put her hand under his chin and lifted his face to look her in the eyes.

As soon as her chocolate eyes met his silvery-blue ones, both felt a bolt of electricity neither had felt before all over their bodies. Looking away quickly to grab another sip of her wine, Draco then spoke.

"Really? Oh, I thought you would think I was wasting my time going into Quidditch as a career. Well, that makes me feel better about myself."

"No, I think it's good. Anyway, are you dating anyone at the moment?" Hermione looked up at him, but he was looking at something else.

"Er, yeah. I've been dating this woman for a couple of years now, her name is my Mum!" he laughed. "No. I'm not dating anyone, I was sort of concentrating on my career first, but now that i've only got 3 more months until I get to join the team properly as their 1st seeker, and everyone I know is dating someone and it's serious or they are married, I kinda want to find myself someone too."

They just sat there in silence for the rest of the meal, but when they were eating pudding, they talked about all sorts of things, like their favourite things and interests and hobbies etc.

After the meal, they both new practically everything about each other and were having a great time. They agreed to being best friends and would have at least one meal together out at a restaurant every week.

They did continue having dinner together, except it turned into a Saturday night thing. After 3 months, Hermione had passed her "1st year" and her and Draco were celebrating her success and Draco on becoming the Chudley Cannon's 1st seeker. They had a bottle of wine and were drinking it, by the time it was midnight they had both gone through a whole bottle of red wine and were completely drunk out of their heads.

They were dancing together when their eyes locked, like the first time, a jolt of electricity shot through their bodies and before either knew what was happening, their lips met. It was a passionate kiss and as soon as Draco licked Hermione's bottom lip, asking for permission to enter, she allowed and their tongues began making themselves familiar to each others mouths gently playing with each other. Suddenly Hermione realised what was happening, she pulled away and ran into her bedroom. When Draco saw this he immediately went after her and knocked on her bedroom door.

"Hermione, please open the door. I'm sorry, i've wanted to do that for 3months now, but obviously I shouldn't have, because now you've run away from me and I feel horrible now and you probably hate me now, all because I wanted to kiss you, as i've had the biggest crush on you since you put on that pink dress I gave you." Draco waited to see if he got a reply, but none came, so he left and went to see his mother.

Hermione was silently crying by the door of her bedroom. She couldn't believe that he had just said that and she couldn't even pluck up the courage to tell him that she didn't hate him, but wasn't quite sure of her feelings towards him yet. After about 10 minutes, she figured she would go and see him in his room and they would talk things over, but when she opened the door her coat that Draco had given her was hanging on the back of her couch with a note hanging out of the pocket. She grabbed the letter out of her coat pocket and sat on the couch to read it. It said:

_Dear Hermione,_

_I'm not sure how this is supposed to go, but I can't actually stop thinking about you. Your vanilla scented hair and body, your beautiful dark brown hair that cascades down your back usually in perfect curls and the way you carry yourself is hypnotising to me and your voice and the words that come out are like my own drug. I'm addicted to you and I just wish you felt the same way, but I think I am kidding myself there as I don't think you'll ever feel that way about me. I'm sorry that I kissed you, I was just overcome with that electricity shooting through my body as I looked into your eyes. I hope you won't hate me and that you will at least let us be friends again after this. If not, then I will leave you alone from now on and I won't ever bother you again. I'm sorry if it has come to you never forgiving me and not wanting to be around me ever again._

_I love you, Hermione and I just wish you felt the same way._

_Draco xxx_

There were tears streaming down Hermione's face again as she finished reading the letter for the fourth time. She couldn't believe her eyes. There was no way that Draco Malfoy, the boy that made Hermione's and her friend's lives hell at school, was in love with her. Before she knew what she was doing, she ran down the hall and found her way at Narcissa's living room door, but didn't enter as she heard voices.

Inside Draco had began to explain to his mother what had happened and about how he had started to love Hermione.

"I don't know what to do now, mother. I mean, I think i'm in love with her and I don't think she feels the same way. Otherwise why did she run into her room and lock the door after I kissed her? What am I supposed to do now?"

Narcissa looked at her son, who looked as if his heart had been ripped out of its socket and was cracking into tiny little pieces every second.

"I can't tell you what to do, Draco. All I can tell you is that you have to make sure she doesn't feel the same way before you get yourself all upset and miserable. She might have just been in shock from the kiss. I mean from the way you put it, it sounded as though she wasn't expecting it to happen and didn't know how to react. Just go back to your room and sleep, then in the morning go and find Hermione and you can talk about it. Now, go," Narcissa practically shoved him out the door and he came head first into a very upset looking Hermione, who had just heard everything he had been saying to his mother.

"Hermione, i'm sorry. I..." Draco began, but was silenced by Hermione's hand over his mouth.

"Draco, I heard what you said to your mother and I just can't talk to you right now. I need a word with Narcissa. We'll talk tomorrow," and she gave him a hug putting a letter of her own into his cloak pocket without him realising.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Confessions and Heartbreak

**A/N: I decided to go back to writing in 1st person again, maybe for just this chapter or more. I don't know yet, just wait and see then you'll find out. Please R&R**

_Draco_

I went back to my room after she went inside my mother's room. As I got back I noticed she had slipped a letter into my pocket, so I quickly opened it and read as I laid on my bed.

_Dear Draco,_

_Your letter made me cry. No, I wasn't sad or upset by what you put in the letter, I was happy. I was very happy. I don't hate you, I could never hate you, because I think I love you too. I'm not too sure completely of my feelings right now, but I hope that you will allow me to have some time to work this out, but I would like to give us a go while I try to work it out. Everything you said was like completely mind buzzing. I didn't know people thought of things like that about other people. Thank you. The reason i'm talking to your mother, probably as you are reading this, is to ask her if I can finish my healer training at the end of this year. I don't know why i'm telling you that, but I think I can do it, because I know everything you need to and now I just want my certificate telling me that I am qualified. I think it's because of you that I have studied twice as hard and learnt everything early as I want to impress you. I know that's stupid, but that's what my mind was saying._

_I will see you tomorrow, I hope._

_All my love_

_'Mione xxx_

I couldn't believe my eyes when I read that letter. My heart instantly repaired itself and I felt a jolt of live awaken inside of me. So, I went to bed with happy thoughts of Hermione in my dreams.

_Hermione_

I walked back to my room after I had spoken to Narcissa about taking my "final year" exam next week, and she agreed. She told me that I was the first ever trainee healer to have learned everything that gets taught over four years in 3 months. I told her that I had actually learned some of the advanced spells and potions to heal, while we were preparing for the final war, which meant that in the end I only had to learn the simple things and then I was basically a healer right then and there.

As I got to my room, I found a note from Draco saying that I was to meet him in the Three Broomsticks in Hogsmede at 1pm the following day. I was kinda excited about it and fell asleep thinking of Draco.

**A/N: I'm kinda bored with the 1st person stuff so i'll go back to normal writing again now.**

Hermione woke up at 9am that Sunday morning and quickly had a shower before she got dressed and had some breakfast. By the time she had finished it was 10am, so she decided to do some revision for her test on Friday. When she was half way through revising a section about potions, she heard an owl tapping at her window. When she looked she saw it was Rennet, Ginny and Harry's new owl. She quickly let the small owl in and saw it was carrying a letter from Ginny.

_Hermione,_

_I need to see you today, please? It's really important and i'm worried. I really need a friend today and I can't ask Lydia or Ron, because I don't think they'd believe me. Please come round, in about 10 minutes please? _

_Ginny x_

As soon as Hermione had finished reading the letter, she grabbed a quill and wrote Draco a note and sent it along with Rennet before picking her coat up and apparating to Ginny's.

As she got to the Potter's house, she was bombarded with a very huge person crushing her whole body, restricting her breathing. When the heavily pregnant woman let go, she noticed her shoulder was completely soaked with tears and when she looked into Ginny's eyes they were bright red and puffy with tears leaking out of them.

"Ginny, what on earth is wrong? Why are you crying?" Hermione sat down on the sofa and pulled her best friend into a her lap to comfort her.

"Harry... gone... note... Cho Chang... slut... heart... pieces... Hermione!" Ginny tried to explain through her constant sobs and Hermione's clothes.

"Woah woah woah! Gin, try and calm yourself down and tell me what's happened," Hermione said trying to calm the girl down.

After about half an hour, Ginny had finally stopped crying, so she could explain all about what had happened.

"Well. I got up this morning after Harry and I had an argument last night about how he is always working so late and that I wanted to have some alone time with him since the baby will be due any day now and he was going on about how everything he does is for me and our unborn baby. Anyway, I got up this morning and I found this note on the kitchen table," Ginny handed Hermione a note. "He's gone, 'Mione, he's left me for Cho Chang, because apparently she is a real woman and kind and caring and only wants what he wants. 'Mione, he's left me for that slut. The one who was horrid to him in school and didn't really love him! Now, he's gone back to her after he's married me and I am carrying his child. My heart's shattered into a million pieces and he can't even leave me by talking to my face."

After Ginny had finished her speech she burst into a fresh round of tears and without a moments notice her waters burst all over her couch.

Draco had been sitting in his room waiting until 1pm to go to the three broomsticks to meet Hermione, when he got an owl dropped on him.

_Dear Draco,_

_I am so terribly sorry to be doing this to you when we are supposed to be having our first date, but Ginny really needs me to visit her right away. I don't know what it's about, but I can tell when my best friend needs help from me and I just can't let her get on with it. So, i'm going to take a rain check on our date later and I hope you aren't too upset, but I will come and see you later and maybe we can go get dinner or something?_

_See you later_

_Hermione xxx_

Draco read and reread the letter and just slumped back on his bed. He didn't know what to do now, he had planned on spending the whole day with Hermione and now he was alone. He decided that he would go and spend the day with his mother and they could catch up a bit. After all, they didn't really talk much about normal things last night except Hermione and he thought he would benefit from a day with 'Mother'.

When he got to his mother's room, he gave her a brief hug and then proceeded to tell her about Hermione's letter and how down he felt about not being able to spend the day with her.

"Well, Draco. You need to see it from Hermione's point of view. Her best friend is in trouble and she needs a friend to talk to and help her with her problems and I know that if one of my girlfriends had a problem I would drop everything to help her. It's just the way us women work. You will have to get used to that if you ever want to get married and have children," Narcissa said trying to get her son to see sense.

"I 'spose you're right mother. I mean, i'm not a woman so I wouldn't know about that stuff, but if one of my friends was in trouble I suppose I would help them as well." Draco smiled at his mother, as he now understood why Hermione did what she did.

They spent the next hour talking about work and what exciting or interesting things they had got up to over the last 3 months and when Draco was planning on moving out, after he had suggested it about 2 years ago. They then had a light lunch and were walking around the garden when Hermione suddenly appeared in front of them with a panicked look on her face.

"Hermione, what are you doing here? I thought you were with Ginny? Wait, what's wrong?" Draco came up to her with a worried look on his face.

"It's Ginny. She was telling me about how Harry left her to be with someone else last night and then she got so upset her waters broke and now she going into labour in her living room and I can't move her, because she wants Harry to be there with her while their child is born, but I don't know where he is and I need someone there to help me deliver the baby. But, I need to find Harry and we couldn't find an owl to send him a letter, so I was wondering if you would help me?" Hermione's eyes pleaded with the mother and son staring at her with shocked faces.

Narcissa quickly grabbed her healers tools, while Draco led Hermione to their private owlery to send her letter to Harry to get to Ginny and then they met with Narcissa and they apparated to Ginny's house.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6 – James Potter's Family

As the two Malfoy's and Hermione got to Ginny, Harry Potter was lying in bed with his new girlfriend, Cho Chang.

"So, you left her a note saying what exactly?" Cho asked her new lover as she lay across his bare chest.

"I said that it wasn't working out, as she couldn't understand that I have needs as well as her and that you understood what those were and that you care a lot more about me. I couldn't stay with someone who couldn't love me the way that I loved them and that I had to leave," Harry replied. "Now, I need to get up and dressed for work. I'll make us both breakfast first even though it should be lunch." He got out of bed and grabbed some fresh clothes and put them on before he set about making Cho and him some breakfast with a glass of juice.

They sat at Cho's kitchen table and ate quietly when they saw a brown tawny owl tapping at the window with a letter tied to it's leg addressed to Harry. They let the bird in and it dropped the letter on the kitchen table and proceeded to fly back out the window.

Harry opened the letter and as he read the contents his eyes grew wide with panic. It read:

_Dear Harry,_

_You've been a right prat and I can't believe you of all people would do something like this to Gin! Anyway that's completely off the point. Ginny has gone in labour with YOUR baby as she was so upset with what you've done, she was panicking and then her waters broke. So, she has refused to give birth to your baby until you get here to be by her side. So, you better get yourself moving now, because she can't hold the baby in or it might harm her AND the baby. Hurry up, we are at your house as she's too far along now to get to St. Mungo's._

_Hermione_

Cho saw the sudden look of panic on her boyfriend's face and immediately asked, "What's wrong hun? Is everything okay?"

"Ginny's gone into labour. I've got to go now. She's refusing to deliver the baby until I get there." Harry replied as he rushed to grab his coat.

"Do you want me to co-" Cho started to be stopped by Harry's shaking head as he disapparated.

"Come on Gin! You can't hold it in. This is your baby we are talking about. Please just push?" Hermione was pleading with her friend as she watched her hold in the pain of pushing and making herself sick with the pain.

"I told you! I am NOT having this baby without my HUSBAND by my side. You can't ma- ARGH," Ginny was screaming as another contraction started and she held in the urge to push once again making herself vomit into the bucket Draco had shoved next to her head.

All of a sudden Harry appeared next to Narcissa who was talking Hermione through what she had to do, as Ginny didn't want her baby to be delivered by a Malfoy.

"Thank god you're here! You have got a lot of explaining to do, Harry. Now go and hold Gin's hand before she's sick again!" Hermione ordered before Harry even had a chance to say hello.

"What is _he_ doing here 'Mione?" Harry questioned as he rushed to his wife's side and grabbed her hand.

"He's here to help and i'm... kinda dating him," Hermione ignored Harry's comments as she told Ginny to push.

_A considerable amount of hours later_

Ginny was holding her and Harry's son in her arms whilst lying in a hospital bed in 's. She was transported there after she had given birth to James.

Harry was outside her room with Hermione and they had started talking about what Harry had done after she had sent Draco and his mother home, saying she would see them later.

"But, didn't you... how did you... _why? _Why did you leave her? She was nine months pregnant with YOUR child and you just left! Harry, I understand you must have felt sad or something, but did that thought of her being alone with your baby, who could have popped out at any time go through your head when you wrote that note and left?" Hermione questioned Harry, while he just sat there looking sorry for himself.

"Hermione, I... er... I don't know what to say, so i guess i'll just tell you the truth," Harry started and got a "_yeah you bloody better_" look from Hermione.

He told her all that he told Ginny in her letter and what he had told Cho about how he felt when he had first started his affair with her and how it all progressed.

"So, do you understand why I did it now and why I can't go back to her?" Harry looked at his best friend's face hoping to see something that would tell him she understood. Instead he got this,

"I'm sorry Harry, but I just can't see why you can't go back to her. I mean, you love her, I can see it in your eyes and she is absolutely crazy about you. You haven't even spoken to her about all this and already your giving up on your marriage. What I can understand is why you did it, but what I can't understand is why you didn't talk to her about it first. Just to find out that it wasn't you and something else. This is very unlike you and I can't be "on your side" if that is what you want, because even you don't know all the facts! Go and talk to her, Harry, because she sure as hell won't want to give up your marriage just like that," Hermione ordered.

Harry looked at her stern face and new he had to do this, so he got up and put a fake, but convincing smile on his face as he entered the room. As soon as he saw his son's eyes land on him his fake smile turned into a genuine one. He went over to his wife and son and kissed him on the head and then proceeded to take him in his arms and place him in the cot next to Ginny's bed.

"Look, Gin, please listen to me? I love you, I do, but it's hard to communicate with you any more. All you've done for the last few months is shout and moan and criticise me about everything. I just didn't know what to do. Before you ask me why I did it. The reasons I just gave and what I wrote to you is my answer and nothing else. I would like to know why you did all those things though, because every time I asked you before, you just ignored me and continued criticising me. Please just answer me that, then maybe I can understand, because I don't. I don't understand you any more, Gin." Harry looked down sadly as his wife turned her head towards him with fresh tears leaking down her flushed face.

"I was pregnant, Harry. I was pregnant with your child," Ginny said and then waited for his response.

It was about a minute before Harry realised that was all she was going to say. "I know you were pregnant with my child. OUR child! But, that doesn't answer my question. Please, just answer the question?" Harry pleaded now looking into Ginny's eyes looking for some sort of regret for her actions.

"That was my answer, Harry. I was a pregnant woman, who was very emotional and hormonal. That. Is. What. PREGNANT. Women. DO!" Ginny screamed the last part waking James, who began crying loudly. She quickly rushed off the bed, grabbed her baby and walked to the other side of the bed, glaring at her husband.

"Ginny, I... i'm sorry. I didn't know. How was I supposed to know that? I never had parents or anyone to tell me that. I'm so so sor-" Harry began, but couldn't finish as he suddenly broke out in hysterical sobs and tears. He fell down on his knees and before he knew it, Ginny had placed the now calm James back into his crib and slapped Harry hard around the face.

"HOW DARE YOU! You break my heart, causing me to go into labour. You leave me for some _hoar_ and can't even gather the guts to tell me to my face. Then you come in here, telling me that i've done all these things to _you_ and when I explain to you, you expect me to forgive you! Just like that?" Ginny's face had turned the colour of her hair and she was breathing very heavily.

Harry was so shocked and feeling so stressed by this whole situation that he collapsed on the floor in front of her and stopped breathing.

After Harry had entered Ginny's room, Hermione had apparated back to the mansion, landing on her living room couch, only to land on a person as well.

"Draco! What the hell? Why are you in here?" Hermione quickly jumped off him and sat to the side of him.

"I was waiting for you to come back. I didn't expect you to apparate onto your couch, though," Draco smirked. "I didn't know we were dating already by the way. When did we actually decide on that?"

Draco smiled cheekily at Hermione and she blushed a deep red, remembering what she had told Harry earlier.

"Oh! About that, well I didn't know what else to say to him to make him calm down and concentrate on Gin. We never actually got to go on our date. I don't really feel like going out now. How about I cook us a meal and we eat in my dining room together?" Hermione looked to Draco before he nodded. She went to get up and go to the kitchen, but Draco's hand stopped her.

"I'll cook. You go and have a shower and change. By the time you come out dinner will be ready," Draco started. "Oh, but before you go. I've wanted to do this properly since I saw you earlier, even though you were in an emergency."

He cupped her face with his hand and gently brought her lips to meet his and they stood there kissing, until Hermione finally gave in and brought her arms around his neck, letting him deepen the kiss. He gently licked her bottom lip and she let his tongue collide with hers and they explored each others mouths.

They were broken up when a healer Hermione recognised from 's appeared.

"Miss Granger, Mrs Potter has urged that I come and collect you. Her husband Mr Potter has collapsed and the healers are currently trying to fix him up. It is quite urgent as he is not breathing. She said she'd like your support, she doesn't think she can cope with this and the baby."

Then the healer disapparated before her. Hermione without thinking, rushed to the mirror and fixed her face. Then she apparated to 's to find Ginny.

Draco just stood where he was and watched Hermione rush around before apparating away from him once again.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Life

Hermione had apparated to Ginny's side outside the emergency healing room, where three healers were working on Harry, who was hooked up (magically of course) to a machine that was showing his heart beat, which was nearly non-existent and his brain activity, which WAS non-existent. Ginny was sobbing quietly with her hands and face pressed against the emergency room door. Hermione took immediate action and peeled her best friend off the door and pulled her into a bone-crushing hug crying along with her. They were crying so much and so loudly now that neither heard the "pop" sound of apparition next to them and Cho Chang appearing next to the door looking in and gasping.

Ginny, having heard the gasp, quickly pulled away from her friend and glared daggers at the woman who, in her mind, had caused all this trouble. Before Cho or Hermione new what was happening, Ginny had launched herself at Cho, both crashing into the wall before the ground. Ginny then proceeded to jump back up, grab her wand from her pocket, mutter a silent spell which led to Cho's wand to land in her firm grasp, then chucked the wand to Hermione and then pointed her own wand at Cho's chest, right above her heart.

"Gin! Wait! Please, don't do something you'll regret, because I know you will regret this," Hermione leaded with her friend.

Ginny ignored her and shoved the wand into Cho's chest hard, knowing it would leave a nasty bruise later. Hermione did the first thing that came into her head and chucked Cho her wand and then ran down the hall as the women started duelling. Finding her destination as she heard a huge crash behind her, she rushed inside got what she needed and legged it back to where the fight was happening. As she approached the women, Hermione pulled her own wand out and put a blocking charm around the women and cast another spell making it so they couldn't move.

"Ginny, I knew that if you did this there would be no way of stopping you, but just think of your son. YOURS and HARRY'S son!" Hermione started bringing James into Ginny's view and watching as her face dropped from pure hatred to a sad, ashamed look. "I know that if you really think about what you are doing and how it may affect your HOURS old baby, you would stop. I think that is my best friend, the one who would do that, but if you don't. You aren't the person I thought you were."

Ginny's face was shocked and, as she couldn't move she begged Hermione to forgive her and let her hold her baby. Hermione agreed and lifted the spell on both women, Ginny running to her friend and holding her baby close and tight against her.

"'Mione! I'm so so so sorry! I just panicked, I was... I am angry at her. My husband might die from a heart attack, because she pulled him away from me and when he begged for forgiveness, I didn't accept it. I love him, 'Mi, I love him and i'm not going to get to say that to him, because he's going to die and it's all her fault!" Ginny started crying again and shot Cho another death glare. Hermione hugged her friend again, being careful not to jolt baby James too much.

Cho came up to the women and said, "Ginny, i'm sorry about all that's happened and I promise I won't be a nuisance to you when Harry moves in. I didn't know that you hadn't had James yet, so i'm sorry that it happened like that. Please, I know you won't yet or at all maybe, but I would like you to forgive me or at least be civil to me. James is very lucky to have parents that love him so much and I will be a good step-mum of sorts to him."

Ginny just gaped at the woman before her and couldn't believe what she had just said.

"For your information. Harry and I are not splitting up and he will not be moving in with you and he will not have anything to do with you once he recovers and comes home to our house. YOU are now going to leave and i'm never going to see you again unless it is business or urgent and you are not going to be in our son's life full stop! Now, leave and don't come back!" Ginny stepped forward pointing at the door and watched as she left.

As both women turned back to the door where Harry was being treated, one of the healers came out and smiled warmly at Ginny as she held James close to her and held her breath waiting for the healer to explain what was happening with her husband.

"Mrs Potter, your husband had a major heart attack, but we have been able to bring him back, but he will need to have three week's bed rest, so no unnecessary moving. He will also need to be taking these pills 6 times a day for those three weeks. Try to make sure he doesn't get too stressed out or upset. You will be allowed to take him home in a few hours and if you have any worries please bring him in to us." The healer then left and motioned for Ginny to go into the emergency room and see Harry.

Hermione then hugged Ginny before telling her she was going to go back to the manor, but she would send a detailed letter to Ron and Lydia about James and all that happened with Harry. Then she apparated back to her living room in the manor, where Draco was waiting for her.

"Draco, have you been waiting for me again?" Hermione said as she began writing her letter to Ron and Lydia.

"I wanted to be able to spend an evening with you, seeing as our whole day has been a bit preoccupied with other things. I got a pizza in, so we can watch tv and relax if you want," Draco replied patting the seat next to him and indicating the hot pizza on the coffee table.

Hermione agreed to the quiet evening and sat down next to Draco and grabbed a slice of pizza. They just sat and chatted about the future and what they wanted to happen for themselves.

"I always imagined myself with a huge family, because I was always lonely when I was growing up and wanted siblings, so I thought that when I got the chance to start a family i'd make it a pretty big one!" Hermione laughed. "I'd probably live in a big house too, so that the family would fit. What about you? Do you want kids or are you a career man all the way?"

"I want kids. I want a big family too, probably for the same reasons as you. I know that it wasn't my mother's fault though. She had always told me that she wanted more kids, but father never let her. He said that one child was enough and he didn't want to chance having a daughter," Draco looked down as he mentioned his father again.

Hermione sensed his distress and put her hand on his knee to comfort him and as he looked up, she noticed he had tears in his eyes so she pulled him into a hug and let him cry into her shoulder. They sat there for quite a while and by the time they pulled apart, Hermione noticed that she had started crying too.

"So, what are we doing now?" Draco asked, as he looked into Hermione's eyes.

"I don't know," she replied and then burst out laughing for no particular reason. Draco started to laugh with her and then for a spur of the moment leaned forward and started tickling her. By the time he stopped, he had ended up lying on top of her on her couch.

"Do you know how beautiful you look when you are vulnerable?" he asked as she lay there looking up at him.

"I am not vulnerable. You are just pinning me down and I am letting you. That does not make me vulnerable. Anyway, I can just push you off!" and she did just that and he landed on the floor next to her. She jumped off the couch and landed on top of him. They just lay there for a while staring at each other, before Hermione lent down and kissed him. Draco was a bit shocked at first, but then he let her and they rolled over so that he was on top once again. He deepened the kiss again, and they just made out on her living room floor for the next ten minutes. As Draco began to slide his hands up her shirt to lift it off and Hermione had her hands resting on his chest where she had unbuttoned his shirt without knowing. She realised what she was doing and the little voice inside her head told her that she wasn't ready for this, so she pushed him off and ran into her bedroom, too shocked to do anything else.

When he realised that she had just ran into her bedroom once again, he got up and knocked on her door gently.

"'Mione, what's wrong? I thought you liked me now?" Draco went to open the door thinking that she would have locked it, but was surprised when he found it was open. He slowly pushed the door back and walked into the room to find Hermione lying on her bed with a very shocked look on her face. He walked over to her and sat on the end of the bed and brushed a stray curl out of her face.

"I'm sorry, Draco. I do like you. I like you a lot in fact, but i'm not ready for that. If that's weird for you, then I guess you should just go already," Hermione looked at him with a look that Draco took to mean, _Please don't hate me and leave. _He didn't want to argue with her, but he couldn't pluck up the courage to leave her like this once again.

"'Mi. It's okay. We don't have to do this if you don't want to. I don't mind, I just assumed you wanted to and I shouldn't have. I'm sorry. Do you think we could just go back to the way things were?" Draco asked while trying to search her face for something that he hoped would tell him how she was feeling.

"Draco, you have nothing to be sorry about. It's my fault, I should have just told you that I wasn't ready and that I am actually one of those girls that wants to wait until she's married for sex. I feel terrible about it, but I promised my family. I'm sorry I didn't tell you," Hermione sat up and hugged Draco to her and cried into his shoulder.

They sat together leaning on the back of Hermione's bed for what seemed like hours to Draco and when he looked down to Hermione, he saw that she was fast asleep in his arms. So, he pulled back the duvet on the other side of her bed gently pushed her over to that side and covered her up. Just as he got up to leave and go to his own room, he felt a small hand grab his wrist, so he turned around to look at her with confusion written all over his face.

"Please don't leave. I want you to stay with me," Hermione looked up at him with a pleading look in her eyes.

"What? I thought you didn't want this? I'm so confused."

"No, I didn't mean it like that. I meant, I want you to _stay_ withme. Not sleep with me. And I would like to give _us_ a go, if you don't mind and that means that I would like to spend nights with you. I know this probably sounds like the weirdest thing you have ever heard, but trust me when I say that I am completely and utterly in love with you. So, what do you say? Will you stay with me tonight and give this thing a go? I'm talking too much aren't I?"

Draco stood completely still throughout her small speech, just staring at her with shock upon his face then let out a small chuckle at that last part. He was about to answer, but decided that an action would speak better than words, so he picked her up in his strong arms and kissed her with all he could. She kissed him back with the same amount of strength and when they pulled apart they were both smiling, but when Hermione and Draco both yawned in sync with each other, they decided that now was the right time to go to bed and sleep.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Friends Acceptance

Hermione was smiling when she woke up the next day, to see a sleeping Draco next to her with his arms around her middle. She thought he looked quite angelic and very very cute when he was asleep. As she didn't want to wake him up just yet, she slipped his arms off her and got out, grabbed her dressing gown and went into the kitchen to make herself and Draco some breakfast. He woke up shortly afterwards and they spent the day together having a laugh.

**A/N: I'm going to kind of skip to the day Hermione has her test now, because I don't really know what to put in the middle :P**

It was Friday morning and Hermione woke with a start, as she realised that she was taking her final test today, and by Monday she would be qualified as a healer. She was so excited that she forgot Draco was still sleeping when she started jumping up and down on the bed. She realised when he grabbed her round her middle and brought her lips to meet his.

"What a way to wake up in the morning! I wake up thinking there is an earthquake, but instead my girlfriend is jumping around on the bed with her hair all over the place. That's what I call a morning," Draco stated with a hint or sarcasm in his voice.

"Oh ha ha, very funny. I was only jumping around, because i'm excited about my exam today!" She smiled back at him as she sat down on the bed opposite him.

"Woman, you are the only person I know that has ever been excited about an exam. You make them look like you've just won a million galleons, but I still love you anyway."

Hermione got up and dressed in her wardrobe then apparated to the test centre before Draco had even jumped out of bed. He turned to look at the clock and realised that it was 8 o'clock and that her test started in 10 minutes. He thought that he ought to go and have a nice cooked breakfast before he went to his quidditch practice in an hour.

Hermione came out of the test centre with a huge smile upon her glowing face. She believed that she had passed with flying colours, but had to wait and see until Narcissa got her results. She thought that she would arrange a celebratory meal with her friends and Draco and her tomorrow if she passed.

She had spent the last hour pacing around in her living room and as soon as her clock struck 3 o'clock, Draco appeared next to the couch and ran and gave her a huge hug and a kiss.

"What was that for?" Hermione asked.

"I am officially playing as the Chudley Cannon's seeker next Saturday when the league restarts again! And, you have just become the next best healer. Today is a great day!" He hugged and kissed her again and then waited for her to say something back.

"I am really happy for you, I am, but I haven't gotten my results yet from your mum, so I don't know that I am a healer yet." Hermione smiled at him, but then looked up as her door opened and she saw Narcissa standing behind it.

"Hermione, oh I am so glad you are here. I've brought you the results of your test, I haven't actually opened them as I thought you would like to do that yourself." She handed the sealed letter over to Hermione's shaking hands and watched as she slowly opened the letter.

Inside the letter it read:

_Dear Miss Hermione Jean Granger,_

_I am pleased to inform you that after completing your Healer finals exam, that you have achieved an equivalent of an Outstanding result in the N.E.W.T. exams that you will have taken in school. You will receive your degree certificate by owl within the next 24hours, this will then enable you to apply for a job at any hospital around Europe and work there as a healer._

_I wish you the best of luck with your new career._

_Best Wishes_

_Russell Brown_

_Director of Health_

_'s Hospital_

Hermione dropped the letter and squealed with delight. She then grabbed Draco by the collar and snogged him then and there with so much passion that it left him without the ability to speak afterwards.

"I got full marks! I'm a healer! Woohoo!" Hermione screamed at the top of her lungs, then she proceeded to pull Narcissa into a bone-crushing hug and kissed her on the cheek. "Thank you, oh I can't believe this. I am so happy! You are the best mentor ever and I can't wait to be working with you."

Narcissa smiled at the young woman, but frowned when her face fell slightly and she looked worried.

"I will be able to work at 's with you won't I?" Hermione pleaded with her eyes.

"Oh, Hermione. Of course you can. I had a job lined up for you when you started and I can't wait either. Welcome to 's!" Narcissa hugged her once more and then apologised that she had to go to work, but that she would see them later.

Once she had left, Draco came over to Hermione and hugged her very tightly and picked her up and spun her around.

"I am so glad for you. I love you so much and I can't wait until you get to tend to my injuries next Saturday," Draco joked earning him a slap on the arm.

"Do not joke about that. You could get really hurt you know! I will not be happy if you get hurt on purpose now and you end up here with a mangled face and no arm!" Hermione stated.

Draco looked at her with his best impression of puppy eyes and somehow it won her over and she gave him a quick kiss on the lips. She then proceeded to run into her bedroom, grab a piece of parchment, quill and some ink and returned to the living area and sat down at the little table she put in there and wrote two letters saying the same thing.

They said:

_Dear Ron and Lydia/Harry and Gin,_

_I am writing to let you know that I passed my Healers exam earlier today and I am going to celebrate with a small party after a meal in my favourite muggle restaurant. I would love it if you would join us, that is my self and my current boyfriend tomorrow at 7pm outside 's._

_Thanks_

_'Mione x_

She then flooed her letter's to the right addresses, and hoped they would join her. She knew that Harry wouldn't, because he couldn't, but she thought she'd let him know anyway. He obviously still wasn't allowed out of bed, but she knew he would have company in the form of Molly Weasley and James.

Draco had been watching her the whole time, but as she looked so concentrated on what she was doing, that he didn't dare ask about it until she had finished.

"So, what was that about?" He asked as he approached Hermione.

"I just invited my friends to a meal and probably a small party afterwards tomorrow at 7pm and you are going to meet all of them (again) and I want to clear the air between you all. So, be kind and don't say anything mean. Please?" She smiled at him, as she knew he couldn't say no to this. He just nodded and then went to have a shower before having a cuddle before dinner.

**A/N: That last sentence really sucked lol :P**

Saturday was an eventful day. Hermione got her certificate and then immediately sent her request of a job at 's to Russell Brown. She got a reply instantly saying she had the job and would start 8.30 till 4.30, Monday to Friday.

As a present for completing her training, Draco had bought her a new black dress with matching shoes. She put it on and added a light amount of make-up to her face and once Draco was also ready, they apparated to the street outside 's and waited for the others to arrive.

Ginny was the first to arrive and greeted them both politely, but looked wearily at Draco. Lydia arrived next saying that Ron was on his way, but was late from the ministry and had to change.

"So, this is the new boyfriend then. Very nice to meet you, i'm Lydia, Ron's wife. You do look kind of familiar you know. Have I met you before?" Lydia smiled as she kissed Draco on the cheek.

"Hey Lydia! This is Draco. You probably know him from the papers, when the war was going on. I'm just going to tell you now that he has redeemed himself with me and by coming with me tonight he is apologising to all of you, especially Ron, when he gets here. Please treat him as you treat me, as he has said that he won't be rude to anyone, but will only talk when spoken to if you'd rather it were that way, however I think it would be better if everyone was open." Hermione smiled at the two women's faces, saw the nervous look upon Draco's face and then noticed that Ginny and Lydia were both looking behind Hermione, so she turned around and came face-to-face with a very angry looking Ron.

"Ron. Did you just hear what I said?" He nodded. "Then you should know better than anyone else that if you don't do what I have asked then you will have to answer to me. Do you understand?" Hermione was glaring at Ron, who suddenly changed his face from looking angry to quite pissed off.

"Yes I understand, but i'm not happy about it. I am here to celebrate you becoming a healer, so I will stay and I will be myself around you, but I will not answer to him nor will I talk to him unless absolutely necessary. I hope Harry knows about this." He stated through gritted teeth.

"Of course Harry knows. We got together the day that James was born and Draco was with me when I delivered him. I had to tell Harry or Ginny wasn't going to push. Now as long as you don't start anything and you are civil then shake hands and we'll go to the restaurant."

Draco, knowing that if he didn't he would get an earful later thrust his hand out towards Ron and smiled as nicely as he could to his former enemy. Ron took his hand and shook it once before pulling away abruptly and went over to Lydia and said hello to Ginny.

Hermione led them to a small Italian restaurant just down the road from the hospital and they sat down to order. Once everyone had gotten a drink and ordered their food, conversation started.

"So, Hermione did you get a certificate or something to show off?" Ginny asked.

Hermione replied with bringing out her newly framed certificate and it got passed around the table.

"How is Harry doing? We've been meaning to stop by and say hello, but i've been studying all week and Draco's been training so much that we haven't found the time really."

Everyone turned to Ginny and she said, "He's doing okay. Mum has been round everyday with all different sorts of "health food" for him, so I haven't had to cook him meals all week. He is very annoyed that he isn't allowed out of bed except for the bathroom obviously, but I did catch him once in James' room about to pick him up, but I managed to get him back to bed. That is another thing he isn't too happy about, is that he can't really play with James, but i've told him that i'll bring James into our room for a few hours a day, so he can cuddle him and watch him play with some toys."

"So you've been training, Draco. For what, if you don't mind my asking?" Lydia looked very interested.

"Well, for the last week I've been training with the Chudley Cannon's, my new Quidditch team. I've got a match next Saturday against Puddlemere United. I was very lucky that I got the position of seeker, but they thought I was pretty good, so that's why I am there." Draco looked around and everyone was smiling except Ron who looked livid.

"You are the Chudley Cannon's new seeker! Are they completely out of their minds? How did you get that? Bribe someone?" Ron fumed.

Before Draco could reply Hermione spoke in a very angry whisper over the table.

"Did you just conveniently forget what I said earlier about you being nice? Draco got his position by working hard and narrowly beat out 5 other people for that position. So, no he didn't bribe anyone and there isn't anything for him to bribe with, because most of his family's fortune was used to pay out all of his fathers debts! Now you either leave right now and don't even bother trying to communicate with me again or you stop and think about being nice. Draco told me today that as a kind gesture to try and get to know you better and maybe get along better, he was going to invite you to a match and then go meet the team afterwards, but I don't think you deserve it now."

Ron was just taken aback by her forceful words and then he realised that Hermione used to hate Draco just as much, if not more than himself in school and she was dating him now, so he must have done something good in her books to be able to get that far with her.

"I'm sorry, 'Mione. I'm sorry, Mal-_Draco_. I'm just finding it incredibly hard to forget all the stuff that has happened between us, but if Hermione has been able to see past this and my wife and sister have accepted you, no doubt Harry has too, than I can try as well I suppose. So, truce?"

Draco considered the hand that had been thrust towards him, but realised it was for Hermione and it might mean that he could make his first proper friend since leaving school, besides Hermione. He took the hand and then the two boys began discussing all the different things about Quidditch and all the teams.

Hermione found the evening very delightful and entertaining and was glad that all her close friends had accepted Draco and were actually getting along quite well.

On Monday however, there was a slight hiccup in her day.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9 – A slight complication

Hermione woke up on Monday refreshed and smiling. She finally had the man of her dreams, her perfect job and there was nothing terrible waiting for her round the corner, it was bliss.

She got to work on time and had quite a few patients waiting for her, it was going to be a busy day. The pleasure she got out of helping these patients was worth it though. As it got near to the end of her work day, Hermione was buzzing with happiness for having the chance to help these people. She finished righting a woman with chicken legs for arms, when Narcissa came down to find her.

"Hermione! Oh, I am so glad I found you. I know that this is only your first day, but Mr Brown would like to see you about a new hospital in Italy. I think he wants you to go over there for a few months to check it out, but i'm not quite sure if that is right. He tried to get me to do it, but I declined as I am the head of this ward, so then he asked me to fetch you. I just thought I would let you know in case he does offer it to you," Narcissa smiled.

Hermione couldn't believe what she was hearing, she was going to be offered a chance to go to Italy and work in a hospital over there probably. She quickly hugged Narcissa for letting her know and rushed up the stairs to Mr Brown's office. She knocked twice on the door and heard him utter a quick '_come in_', she opened the door and sat in the comfortable chair in front of his desk.

"I'm glad you've joined me, Miss Granger. I have asked you to come here today as a great opportunity has arisen and i'd like to offer it to you." He paused to see Hermione's reaction and she smiled to let him continue. "You see, a new hospital has just opened in Rimini in Italy and we are trying to get a good relationship with them, in case we are ever in need of something from them. So, we have been offered a transfer for 6 months for one of the healers here, and I would like you to take it. It would require you to leave this Friday and then you would return to work here again at the beginning of September. I know this is a lot to take in, so I will give you until Wednesday to let me know if you would like to take this opportunity. You are free to go home now if you wish and I will hear from you on Wednesday."

"Thank you, Mr Brown. I will think about it and get back to you soon," Hermione got up and left. She went and got changed before apparating back to the manor.

Draco was waiting for her when she came back, he'd had a shower when she was still at work and just sat watching various programmes while he waited for her return.

"How was your first day then?" he smiled at her glowing face.

"Oh, it was wonderful! Besides the fact that some of these patients are really ill, I was really happy to be there," she smiled back. "I got offered a great deal today as well. Your mum came and found me to say that Mr Brown wanted to see me, so I went up to his office and he said that he wants to send me to a new hospital in Italy for 6 months on Friday and that if I wanted to go then I have to let him know by Wednesday! Isn't that just the best news ever!"

Draco's smile faded and he looked quite upset about this new information. "Do you plan on saying yes?" he asked her tentatively, not really wanting to know the answer he was sure that would come out of her mouth next.

"Yes! Of course i'm going to accept. Why wouldn't I accept this wonderful opportunity to go and work in Italy?" Hermione questioned him.

"So, you are just going to leave and go to Italy for 6 months and have the time of your life working in a brand new hospital there, leaving me behind without even a second glance?" his voice sounded angry, but his face and expression looked shocked and hurt.

"What are you talking about? It's not like i'm dying! I'm only going for a few months and then i'll be back before you know it. I'm not leaving you behind really. Just think of it as I am going on an extended holiday and i'll come back and we'll be happy together again," she replied.

"Extended holiday! You'll only be gone a _few_ months? Hermione, you are leaving to work in Italy for _6 months_, not a few! You aren't going on holiday, you are leaving to work! You will be too busy wrapped up in your lovely world there that you won't even have the time to _think _about me. 6 months is _half a year_! You will be gone for half a year, while I am here playing quidditch and living how I am now and you won't care after a few weeks without me. I can't believe that you are just going to up and leave after we have only just gotten together officially!" After his shouting outburst he left the room in a storming rage and slammed the door after himself.

Hermione felt awful for making him feel that way, but every time she tried to talk to him, he just walked away.

The next day, she didn't even see him as she ate her breakfast. She spent the whole day at work contemplating what to do about this job in Italy. She went to see Mr Brown and asked him if she could think about it at least until Friday morning, she would leave in the afternoon. He said that was fine as he already had another healer lined up in case she said no. She got home and went to find Draco, but couldn't find him anywhere, so decided she would just have dinner and go to bed early.

Wednesday was about the same as Tuesday. She didn't see Draco all day and it worried her that maybe he didn't want her any more. To calm herself down she wrote him a note to say she was worried and wanted to know if he was okay or if he just wanted space. After an hour without a reply she went and made herself some dinner and ate while watching the television.

Thursday, she went to work and came back as usual and there still was no reply. She was worrying again, but thought that since he hadn't replied that he wanted to be left alone. She decided to go visit Ginny to get some advice about what she should do, so she grabbed her bag and jacket and went to Ginny and Harry's house.

Ginny was cuddling Harry with James asleep in between them on their bed when she heard the familiar pop of someone apparating into the house. She got up, smiled at Harry and her sleeping son, then went downstairs to see her guest.

She found Hermione standing in her living room looking worried and slightly confused. She turned as she heard Ginny come into the room. "Sorry. I was upstairs with Harry and James, having a cuddle. He gets so annoyed that he can't do anything with him yet, so we always spend time upstairs with him, well as much as possible. Anyway, what's wrong with you? You look worried. Has something happened?" Ginny got more worried with each sentence.

"No! Gin, no. Nothing has happened. Well not yet anyway. That's kinda why I came here. To ask your opinion about something," she smiled at her best friend.

"Okay. What do you need help with?"

"Well..." and Hermione recounted what Mr Brown had offered her. Ginny gasped.

"Italy! Oh, Hermione that's wonderful! Why do you need my opinion. My opinion is take it. It's a once in a life-time opportunity if you ask me," Ginny smiled at her and then proceeded to hug her afterwards too.

"Well. That is what I thought too, but then I told Draco and he wasn't so happy about the idea of me leaving him for 6 months. I haven't seen him since Monday now. I'm worried about him. I sent him a note asking how he was yesterday and he hasn't replied. What if he doesn't want me now? I don't know what to do, Gin! It's tearing me apart knowing that he doesn't want me to go, but that I can't wait to leave. What should I do?"

Ginny pulled Hermione onto the couch, went and made a cup of tea for each of them and then sat down with her.

"'Mi, you can't get yourself worked up about this. You will have to play it cool and not let him bring you down, or he'll know your weakness and use it against you every time he wants something from you or for you to do/not do something for him. Now, you say he hasn't replied to your message and you haven't seen him since Monday. Well... have you tried to see if he is at training every day? Or, if Narcissa knows where he is?"

"Narcissa didn't even realise that he had left! According to his trainer, he has been into training every day, but he only does it at times when he knows I can't go and see him there, because i'm stuck at the hospital. How am I supposed to decide what to do about tomorrow if he won't turn up?" Hermione let out a loud sob and crashed into Ginny, knocking the wind out of her with a bone-crushing hug. They stayed like that for hours and then Hermione told Ginny that if Draco didn't turn up by tomorrow than she would leave to Italy later that day.

What Hermione didn't know was that her boyfriend had been crashing at Ron and Lydia's house after explaining why he was there in the first place. When Ron heard about this trip, he agreed with Draco that he didn't want his best friend going away for half a year without so much as a goodbye or anything. Plus he didn't know what he would do without her if he needed help with something at the ministry. Draco was clever when he decided to go to Ron, because he knew that he had always held a special place for Hermione in his heart, even though he was in love with Lydia now and they were married. So, Draco knew that he would not let his friend leave to Italy and stay there. He was contemplating on how he should tell her about not wanting her to go away, while he was doing some extra training, out of his normal hours, with the beaters on his team. He had just decided what he was going to say and do when he saw Hermione later that evening when he got hit by _both_ bludgers on either side of his head, knocking him straight unconscious and leaving him to fall 100ft to the ground. One of his other team mates who happened to see this happen, quickly pulled his wand out and cushioned Draco's fall enough so that he wouldn't have died from the fall. They called for healers and they sent him straight to 's, because when they landed to check him out they saw that his skull had been cracked and was gushing way too much blood for them to handle on their own. He was in a very fatal state by the time they got him there, but no-one knew this was happening back at his familie's mansion.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10 – Decision

There were 12 healers working on Draco, when Hermione walked into work the next day. It was to be her final day before she went to Italy that afternoon. She got changed into her healers robes and walked down the hall to help with the emergency patient that was being worked on. When she got into the room, she saw just a sliver of bright blonde hair, but thought, _It can't possibly be him, could it?_ Just as she was about to look at the patients medical notes, she got called to another room, to work on a different patient. She went out of the room to see to this other patient, but had a bad feeling that she should have checked those notes still before she left. She finished helping a woman with blue skin that was protruding purple blisters on her back, then went to finish her paperwork on that patient. Just as she finished her notes, she saw Narcissa running down the hall towards her with tears streaming down her face.

"Hermione! Oh, I don't know what he was thinking, but I swear to god that he better come round from this and be okay. I don't know what i'd do without him. I'm not working today, so they won't let me in to check him out. Have you seen him? Can you tell him i'm here for him when the healers have finished with him?" Narcissa said as she hugged Hermione.

"Narcissa? What are you on about? Who are you talking about? I haven't seen anyone you know around. Well, the only one I haven't seen is the patient in the emergency room, but I was just about to go in there to help," Hermione pulled back from Narcissa and looked at her confusedly.

"You don't know, do you? Oh, no! Hermione, it's Draco. He was in a training accident yesterday evening. He stayed behind with some of his team mates for extra practise and he got mauled by both bludgers on the sides of his head and fell nearly 100ft. He is the one in the emergency room. I thought they would have contacted you yesterday evening. I only got a letter this morning, so I rushed down. I thought you knew..."

She didn't get to finish what she was saying as Hermione legged it down to the emergency room and rushed inside to see Draco with his head being wrapped in a million bandages, with only holes for his eyes, nose, mouth and ears, which looked like a dog had been chewing them for the past three days.

"Oh, Draco!" she shouted as she saw that he had broken both legs and his right arm, but his left arm was missing a huge chunk out of it.

Once the healers realised that she was involved with him, they sent her out, saying that they had lots of tests they still had to run before she could see him and that she should go and work on some of the other patients around. She did continue working on other patients, but her mind was constantly on Draco and if he would be okay.

When her shift was over and she was allowed to go home, she quickly had a shower, then grabbed a bag and put a few of Draco's clothes in for him and returned to the hospital.

When she got to his room, there was only two healers inside working on Draco's leg, but she was allowed inside to sit by his bedside. His head was still covered in bandages, but you could see his face more now. His cheeks were very swollen and bruised. His lips were swollen too and he had a deep cut down the left side of his face, but it was healing quite nicely. He had a black eye on the right and a cut above his eyebrow on the left, but that had scabbed over now. His left arm had lots of bandages on it and his right was in a cast. She couldn't see his legs as, when the healers had realised she was in the room, they put a screen over his legs, so she couldn't see what they were doing.

He was still unconscious and he looked like he was in pain, but she couldn't do anything except sit by his side.

She stayed all throughout the night, while he slept and continued to make sure he had enough pain relief, so he wouldn't wake up until the morning. At around 7am, she was shaken awake by Narcissa.

"Go and have yourself something to eat. You look like hell. Did you not sleep much last night?"

"I was waking at regular intervals to give him pain relief, so no I didn't and I'm not hungry so I'll stay here and help when they move him into a private room," Hermione replied, trying to make herself look a bit more presentable, but failing.

"Now, don't be a nuisance. What good do you think you will be to my son if you look just as bad as he does. You need to eat and this is your day off, so you better make good use of it, by doing as you are told! Now, go and get some breakfast and a clean change of clothes. He's not going to be waking up any time soon, they won't let him until he is safely in his private room, which won't be happening for another hour and a half at least. So, go. I'll be here if anything happens, which it won't," Narcissa said while practically shoving Hermione through the door.

She quickly got home, had another shower and dressed in some comfy, but casual clothes. Then she got herself a banana and a slice of toast and headed back to the hospital.

It was around 8.15am when she got there and the healers looked to be about to get Draco ready to be moved into a private room. She rushed inside to grab the things she had left in the emergency room with him and went with the healers and porters to room 103 down the corridor. They got him set up in there with a drip that gave him constant pain relief (non-drowsy) and took the sleeping spell off him, so that he could come round on his own.

"When he comes round, there may be a few things different about him. Like the way he talks, but he may not. Now, where he hurt his head, means that he might have some temporary memory loss, but everything should return to him eventually. I can't tell you if he will react badly when he comes round, but there is a calming potion in the cabinet next to his bed. Once you are sure he is calm, and not going to do anything extreme, please call one of us. We will need to explain some things to him." The healer left then and Hermione sat down next to Draco's bed again, as Narcissa dabbed a wet cloth over her son's face, to make it look a bit better.

They sat there for another hour waiting for him to come round. Narcissa got up to go and start her shift and told Hermione that when he woke up and had seen the healers, she should come and get her.

10 minutes after Narcissa left, Draco started to come round.

"Draco? Draco, it's Hermione. Everything is okay. You had a bit of a quidditch accident and you're in 's." Hermione was saying as he opened his eyes.

"Hermione? I don't... I don't remember anything. My head really hurts though," he laughed at the last comment and raised his right arm (in a cast) to his head to feel all the bandages that were wrapped around it. "Do you... do you know what happened to me? Were you there?"

"No. I wasn't there, but your quidditch team mates were. They brought you here. Apparently, you were doing some extra training after your normal training had finished, and when you had your back turned or something, a bludger hit you in the head and knocked you out cold. You fell a long way, I can't remember how far, but it didn't do you any good," Hermione tried to explain as calmly as she could.

"Extra training? Why would I do extra training? Did something bad happen?"

"No. Why would you think something bad had happened?" Hermione looked at him confusedly.

"I would only opt to do extra training if there was something on my mind that was bothering me, or if I was upset about something. It's very confusing," Draco replied looking Hermione straight in the eye.

She tried to think of something that might have upset him, but couldn't think of anything, until she realised that she was supposed to have gone to Italy yesterday, and they had had that fight about her leaving him. She didn't want to stress him out, so she just shrugged her shoulder's in response and went to find the healer that wanted to talk with him.

"Hello, Draco. I'm Healer Strauss. I'm one of the team of 5 healers that will be looking after you for the rest of your stay here. I'm sure Healer Granger has informed you of what has happened so far, and I am here to tell you more," the healer said looking from Hermione to Draco.

"I know that you are romantically involved, as Healer Granger has informed us, but as she is not a family member we have to ask you if you would like her in the room with you or if you'd like her to leave."

Hermione looked to Draco to see what his response was, but he looked far away, as if he wasn't in the room with them, but somewhere completely different.

In actual fact, Draco was having a flash back of Hermione saying she was going to Italy and leaving him behind. He couldn't believe that he was remembering something like this. How could he remember something so painful and hurtful to him, that made him completely miss what the healer had just asked him.

"Sorry, what was that?"

"I was wondering if you would like Healer Granger to stay with you while I tell you more about your condition?" Healer Strauss asked again.

"No. She can leave." Draco answered in a flat voice. He didn't want someone who would leave him to go to Italy knowing anything more about him.

Hermione was so surprised that she just sat there looking at Draco for a moment, before she reluctantly got up and walked out of the room. She imagined that the healer would be in there for quite a while as she had to tell him about all of his separate injuries and obviously tell him something that is personal and that he might not want to tell other people. So, she decided to make a visit to Ginny and Harry's to see how her friends were doing.

Meanwhile, Draco was being told of how he ended up in the hospital.

"So, we got nearly all of our healers to start trying to fix you up. You can obviously tell that you have a broken arm, but your left arm, will take a bit longer to heal, as when you got here you were missing nearly half of your forearm, so we will be helping it grow back. You had a very serious head injury. You had cracked your skull in three places and you had some bleeding on your brain. We managed to stop the bleeding, but not before it had a chance to affect you first. As you already know probably by know, you may not be able to remember much from the last week or so. That is one of the things that got affected, but also, there is a part of your brain in which determines which hand you write with. It sounds a bit strange I know, but this got damaged, so unfortunately you will need to learn how to write again.

But, this isn't bad news. You did suffer from internal bleeding around your stomach area. What we think happened, was when you fell to the ground you landed on your right kidney which then led to that having a tear, which caused it to bleed. So, now you only have one kidney, but as we were removing this, your appendix burst, so you no longer have that either. Besides that your mid section is perfect, besides a few scrapes and bruises."

"Okay. What about my legs? Did nothing happen to them?"

"Well. This is the slight bad news. Before I tell you what we've done, you must know that if we hadn't you would have needed your legs removed. They were broken in 12 different places each, so we had no idea how to fix them, as the places were very difficult places for us to fix. So, we took the bones out of your legs, and replaced them with metal replica's. Now, we know that this will sound quite strange to you, but it was the quickest thing to do, so that we didn't have to regrow the bones, but if you would prefer that, we can remove the metal and start you on the bone regrowth sessions. It is up to you," Healer Strauss explained in a very calm and clear voice.

"I have metal legs?" Draco asked, completely shocked.

"No. You have metal bones inside your legs."

"Well, that is not something I want! How dare you do something like that to me, without asking me about it first! I demand you take this metal out of my legs this instant! Of course i'd rather have actual _**bones**_ in my legs than metal. I don't want to be a freak!" Draco screamed at the healer.

"Of course Mr Malfoy," and with that the healer waved her wand and the metal was removed from Draco's legs.

"Now, leave me alone! I want to be on my own for a while," he said pointing to the door.

Healer Strauss, left three different potions on the table next to Draco's bed before leaving, "It says how much to have and when to take them on the bottles."

Once she had left, Draco started crying quietly, wondering what would possess his girlfriend to leave him to go to Italy, forgetting the fact that she actually didn't leave at all. He took each of the potions next to him as instructed and then had the sleeping draft he was given. His last thought before falling into the world of dreams, was _I've got to talk to her and soon._


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11 – Do you...?

Hermione spent the rest of Saturday with the Potter's, but she couldn't help thinking about Draco and why he wouldn't want her there when the healer explained what was wrong with him.

When she got back to the hospital, Draco was asleep. She didn't feel like spending the night in the hospital, so she went back to the manor and slept in her bed.

Draco woke up alone on Sunday morning and wondered where Hermione was, as he wanted to talk to her. He saw that the healers had been in to replace his potions with new ones, so he drank those down, before having some breakfast. His mother stopped in and had a chat with him about how he was and what would happen when he came home. Lunch went by and he got a surprise visit from Ginny and Lydia, both of whom wished him well and gave him some liquorish wands and chocolate cauldrons, but still no visit from Hermione.

By the time dinner came by, Draco was worrying where she was, as he asked all who had visited that day, including some of the healers, if they had seen her, but they all said no.

Hermione had actually been sleeping the whole day at the manor and woke up at around dinner time that evening. She thought of going to see Draco quickly before heading back to the manor and sleep again until tomorrow, but thought he could wait until tomorrow anyway and she went back to bed.

The next morning, Draco woke up and got told that he could go home today, but they would be assigning him a healer to come and check on him throughout his recovery and make sure he had all the potions he would need to help his recovery. His bones in his legs had not yet fully regrown yet, so he would have to be helped with a wheelchair, washing, dressing and someone would need to get him his meals. Besides that he should be fine on his own.

Narcissa took the day off, so she could help him get home and sort everything out. She forgot to tell Hermione, so when she had brought Draco home, Hermione had already left for work.

She got to 's right on time, but quickly went to Draco's room to check in on him, only to find that he wasn't there. She asked one of the healers looking after him where he was and they told her that he had already been taken home by his mother. Hermione felt terrible about not visiting yesterday and that she wouldn't be able to see him until she had finished work. But, she carried on with her work and she would see him later.

While Hermione had been at work all day, Draco had been organising everything to his likings in her quarters in the manor, as that is where he would be staying. He had a healer who came to make sure he had settled alright and that he had his potions for the next week on hand. He was perfectly happy by lunch and now was waiting for Hermione to come home.

She had a relatively good day at work, she had three patients who needed surgery, so she did those and as she finished, it was time for her to go home. She changed into her casual clothing and apparated back to her living room at the manor.

Draco heard the familiar 'pop' noise of someone apparating and knew she was home.

"Hermione? Is that you?"

"Draco? Yeah, it's me. Are you in the bedroom?" Hermione heard him, but the sound came from the dining room rather than the bedroom, which she thought was strange.

"No. I'm in the dining room, but could you go to the bedroom. I got you a present and i'd like you to wear it."

Hermione went straight into the bedroom and found a blood red, drape dress, with sparkles on the bodice on the bed. It had a slit that went up to mid-thigh and it reached to her ankles. Beside the dress were a pair of strappy red 3 inch heels and a plane diamond necklace with a matching bracelet and earrings. There was also a sparkly red clutch bag and inside was some new make-up.

She was so shocked that she had to blink a few times to believe it. She immediately stripped down and jumped into her shower. When she came out she magically dried and styled her hair into smooth ringlets with the top layer of her hair pulled to the back of her head and held in place with a small glittery clip. She went to get some underwear and found new red, lace bra and thong. She quickly put them on and pulled the dress over the top. She then placed her necklace and bracelet on, then pulled on her shoes and grabbed the bag. She went into her bathroom and applied some sophisticated looking make-up.

She then went into the dining room and gasped at what she saw.

The whole room was lit by candles floating around the room and the table was set for two people on a red table cloth and perfect silverware. The two glasses on the table were filled with champagne and a meal of haddock and salad were in the place settings. Draco was seated at the place setting opposite where Hermione was standing, he was wearing midnight blue dress robes and was looking at Hermione with awe.

"Hermione, you look absolutely gorgeous. I take it you like my presents?"

"Yes. They are lovely, especially the ones you can't currently see," she said grinning slightly.

"Oh, and I can't wait to see those on you!" He replied with a grin of his own.

"Well, you can see them on me, but not off. You know why, before you ask!"

"Yes, I do and I respect that, 'Mi. I love you and I just wanted to let you know that with this meal. Please, lets eat," Draco said with a smile, gesturing to the food.

They ate their meal and chatted about things. Hermione apologised about the Italy thing, and Draco apologised for running away from his problems and that he should just support Hermione's decisions.

As they got given coffee's to finish off the evening, Draco decided to ask the one thing that had been on his mind for a while.

"'Mi. You know how much I love you and how terrible I feel for leaving you. I love you so much, that it would be my honour if you would consider moving in with me. Permanently."

He handed Hermione a key. She looked at the key and back at Draco as if he was completely mad.

"But, I already live with you permanently."

"No. You don't understand. You are currently living in my _parent's_ house. I want you to move into the house that I bought earlier today. I believe you are familiar with the place called Godric's Hollow?"

"Wait. You want me to move in with you to Godric's Hollow. Me and you. In a house. On our own. In Godric's Hollow?"

"Yes, that is exactly it. So, do you want to?" Draco asked as a smile spread slowly across both their faces.

"Yes, yes. Oh god YES! I will move in with you!" Hermione screamed as she launched herself across to Draco and hugged him tightly and kissed him with all the passion she had within herself.

Over the next couple of weeks, Draco and Hermione moved into the new house in Godric's Hollow and Hermione got herself the position of being Draco's personal healer, so she just stayed at home with him, while his wounds healed and his leg bones re-grew. They both believed that this relationship was finally getting somewhere and they were both very pleased about it.

As Draco's legs had finally healed, he now needed physio to learn how to walk properly again. Hermione was helping him, and three times a day they would do his leg exercises together.

Hermione had told Ginny and Lydia everything that had happened from when she had been offered her position in Italy to Draco and her moving in together, and they insisted that she have a house-warming party.

On the day of the party, Hermione had been stressing over what to wear, when Draco suggested she wear the sky-blue cocktail dress he had bought her which, luckily, was ideal for their party. Once they had both been dressed and sorted out the table with nibbles and drinks, the first guests had arrived.

Molly and Arthur Weasley, Fred **(A/N: I am not having him dead in MY story)** and Angelina, George and Alicia, Neville and Luna, Ron and Lydia, Ginny, Harry and James, Bill and Fleur, Lavender and Seamus, Parvarti and Dean, Padma and Colin, Blaise and Pansy, Charlie and Heather, Tonks, Remus and Teddy **(A/N: I'm not killing them off either) **and many more guests arrived and were having fun when the music suddenly switched off and Hermione and Draco now surrounded by all of their guests.

Hermione was still wondering why the music had switched off that she failed to miss Draco bending down on one knee in front of her. When she did look down, she gasped as Draco brought out a red velvet box and opened it to show off a gold ring with three perfect diamonds in it. The left diamond was red, the right one was green and the one in the middle, which was slightly larger than the others was just a plain diamond, which looked to have a small scratch on top of it.

Draco then pulled out an odd looking magnified glass, and gave it to Hermione.

"Please look at the ring and read out what it says," he asked her.

Hermione took the glass and looked at the ring, which had a very tiny message inscribed on it.

"It says. 'Mione. I know that we have had our ups and downs, but I know one thing for sure. I love you more than I have ever loved anything else in my entire life and probably won't love again..."

"Will you marry me?" Draco cut her off.

Hermione looked absolutely lost for words and all she could say at that particular moment was, "Will _I _marry _you_?"

"Well, I was kinda hoping you would. So, do you want to marry me?" Draco asked again with an apprehensive look on his face now.

"Oh my god! Of course I will marry you, you complete buffoon!" and with that they kissed mighty passionately as everyone there cheered and clapped for the happy couple.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12 – Dear Diary

_Dear Diary,_

_Hermione here again. It feels like ages since i've written in here, when it had actually only been a couple of weeks, but with everything that has taken place since my last entry you can see why it feels so long._

_April 3rd. That is the date! I am so glad that I have had the opportunity to set it already. Obviously it isn't going to be until next year, with so much stuff to plan, but i'm still incredibly excited just to have a date! Oh, and it's not just ANY date. It is **the **date. My parent's wedding day! I am so thrilled that we could have it this day, as Draco wanted a winter wedding. Ugh! That is the only thing that bugs me. He likes the cold weather too much. Well that is going to change when he sees me at our wedding. He'll find warmer weather a lot more appetising? Not sure if that is the right word to use. Oh, look at me. Not knowing what the **right** word to use is! Being too excited isn't good for me obviously. But anyway. Enough talking about things I haven't even mentioned before!_

_Exactly twenty-four hours ago, my beloved Draco Malfoy, proposed in front of all my friends and got down on one knee and everything! I was so shocked I couldn't talk. But as soon as my senses returned I pounced on him like there was no tomorrow. I feel so lucky that I have him and that he is all mine. I know that sounds selfish, but its true! What surprised me the most though, was that he got Ginny in on it! She was the one who told me to organise a house-warming party for Draco and i's new living arrangements. Apparently Draco told her what he was going to do and she suggested that he do it in, not only a huge crowd of people, but people who mean the absolute world to me. (Except Pansy.)_

_On to more important matters now. My RING! Oh, it is so beautiful and lovely and I can't stop looking at it resting on my delicate little finger. Draco told me that it symbolises us. The red diamond, is myself, a Gryffindor through and through, brave, smart, kind, chivalrous. The green diamond, is Draco, a Slytherin through and through (without a doubt.) Although, his words to describe himself were a little bit different to how I would have worded them. Gorgeous, smart, devious, sneaky (in a good way) and a sex god! I mean, come on! How would I know that. I haven't gone that far with him yet and he knows that he has to wait until we have actually said 'I do' before he gets close to that. Anyway, those were his words about himself. But the middle diamond, completely plain, besides the wonderful inscription, which changed the words 'Will you marry me?' to 'You are my life now!', is supposed to symbolise us together. It is plain, simple and hasn't any flaws. He added yet to the end of that sentence, but I don't believe that will be needed at all. _

_I am so happy right now and I hope that it will always be like this for us from now on, but you never know with marriages do you? You never know if they will last a life time or 6months. But I believe that our marriage will last just like I believe Harry and Ginny's will, and they got over infidelity, which is huge, so I think we'll be okay._

_I really want to go and get my wedding dress now, but my mother, Ginny and Narcissa all told me not to, because its more fun and exciting if you do it closer to the actual wedding. Plus there is the fact that if I got one now, it would be sitting in my wardrobe for months and Draco will probably see it and that would be bad luck. But, I have got one thing already for my outfit and that is my 'something borrowed.' Ginny has let me borrow her glittering hair clips, which coincidently she wore at her wedding to Harry. They are currently hiding in my jewellery box. I know I will have my 'something old' from my Mum, as she has already told me that she wants me to have it. She wants me to have her veil! It is **quite** a bit old, which is why she has taken it to a shop to get it fixed up a bit. There is a small hole in it and she didn't want to give it to me like that, but I am so honoured to be given it by my own mother! I really believe that this wedding is going to be the most fantastic day of my life. I can't wait to become, Mrs Draco Malfoy! It's so exciting!_

_Dear Diary,_

_I told you i'd do it! I told you I would end up marrying the most fantastic woman in the world. And what have I just done? I just asked Hermione Granger to marry me. SHE SAID YES! I cannot believe my luck. I thought it was luck just to have her accept my apology when she first arrived in the manor, but no! She's marrying me next year on April 3rd. Yes, we have a date too. She wanted to get married on the same day as her parents as they had such a long and happy marriage, unlike my parent's marriage. They were in love, for about 5 years, but even then it was nothing like how they should love each other. I think they only stayed together, because of me and the fact that my father wouldn't be caught dead, having a divorce. It would have ruined his reputation. Anyway, I hope this day brings us the luck that Hermione's parents had. I can't imagine my life without her in it at all. Apparently, she has already got a few items for her wedding outfit already, but when I asked her about it, she told me that if I haven't seen it yet, then it doesn't matter if she has got things already or not. I suppose she's right there, but I would like to see it if she's got any lingerie. He he he!_

_My Mother was over the moon when I told her the news. She was invited to the party, like 'Mione's parents, but couldn't make it. There was an emergency at 's or something. Anyway, she was delighted._

_You see, my mother has never cared about "blood status" like my father. She was glad that I had taken after her with the not caring about fruitless topics. She then confessed that she had an inkling that I would end up proposing to her at some point._

_I love that woman so much it hurts. Hermione cannot have a clue how much I love her. If I think about it really hard, I suppose i've always liked her, but covered it up by being as cruel as I possibly could towards her. It was wrong of me and I wish I could change it, but then I always think. If I hadn't acted like that towards her, would I be in my situation now, or would I be with someone else. Or worse, she was with someone else, while I wallowed in my own self pity._

_But that is only a what if. I am actually in this situation and so far I am loving it. Oh, besides the whole huge accident and having to regrow my leg bones thing, but besides that I am absolutely ecstatic! _

_I just pray to god that this will last. I know that I am the last person that deserves to be happy, after all that I have done, but I think that Hermione does deserve to be this happy and for it to last, and if I am what makes her this happy, I think she deserves to keep what we have together._

_Now, I have to pick a best man, but that is probably the most easy thing I have ever had to do. Blaise Zabini is going to be my best man. I have known him my whole life, I may not have been best friends with the guy at school, but we have gotten quite close since the war, so he is the man! I was considering Potter, as we have been getting along quite well, owling each other, as we are both stuck at home from injuries, but now we have both healed, I hope we stay in contact as much as we have done. It would be a shame to lose all the progress i've made with him over the last couple of weeks. But, Zabini is my best man, so that is that and now I am going off with 'Mione to visit her parents, whom I haven't actually had the pleasure of meeting yet._

_Cheerio, shall write back again soon._

_Draco Malfoy_

**A/N: I know this is probably a shit place to end it, but that is what I am like and there is also the fact that I wrote this particular story around 2/3 years ago and it would be weird if I continued on with it now, as I am a lot better at writing than I was back then. Thanks for reading anyway! I will be going back and correcting it a bit I think, because i'm not sure if it all flows or not? :S**


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